Ryan Gosling's Kenergy Is Arguably The Greatest Running Bit In The History Of Movie Promotions
I've seen some circles of Film Twitter hyping up Ryan Gosling as an Oscar contender for his turn as Ken in Barbie. Don't know about all that, but if there were an Academy Award for selling the shit out of a big studio movie, Gosling would be taking home his first golden statue without question.
If you're grinding away and having a case of the Mondays, Kenergy is just the pick-me-up you need to get through that sludgy slog. The wordplay prowess Gosling flexes with his Kenergy is prolific. I can't believe how quick-witted this man is. Even in interviews, his sense of comedic timing and ability to let the bit snowball into hilarity blow me away.
So yeah, Gosling's Ken antics throughout Barbie's press tour have been hysterical. However, today's video with GQ in which he's pseudo-in-character, breaking down things he can't live without was an instant classic.
From the Metallica font fanny pack, his own spin on a famous Coco Chanel quote, the strange obsession with horses, the rationale behind rocking dual sunglasses...it's all incredible. Gosling seems to be doing all this off the cuff, which makes me even sadder that he/his management team haven't leaned into comedies as much throughout his Hollywood career.
More often than not, Gosling has been attracted to darker material. Don't get me wrong, he has plenty of brilliant performances in those dramatic roles. It's just that...between whatever the hell he's about to do as Ken and the legendary turn he had in The Nice Guys as private dick Holland March, we need more Ryan Gosling-fronted comedies. Like yesterday. Like years ago.
Kenergy and Margo Robbie's Barbie — along with a star-studded ensemble cast — are likely to help Barbie best Christopher Nolan's mighty epic Oppenheimer at the box office. Well, a runtime of about an hour less means it'll get more screenings by default, so that helps. Whatever. I hope both movies do well, and you already KNOW I'm doing the Barbenheimer double feature on Thursday. I'm just glad we have two masterpiece-looking movies releasing in a matter of days. "Masterpiece" is such an overused term these days and it's so annoying. But I feel like we have something special on the way. Barbie's first teaser was an absolute knockout and I've been hyped ever since.
As for what "Kenergy" actually is, I think we'll have a better idea once Barbie hits theaters. Or, you can check out what Ken himself has to say about it: